Volume 15 (2014)

Editor's Note

Thank you for picking up this edition of the Bryant Literary Review. Each year, we receive submissions from across the world, but this issue is special for two reasons: this is our 15th anniversary edition, and it includes work from the current and past two Poets Laureate of Rhode Island – Rick Benjamin, Lisa Starr, and Tom Chandler.

Fifteen years is an extraordinary run for a literary journal, and the fact that the BLR is still going strong is a real credit to our staff and the support we receive from Bryant University. We are happy to be a part of yet another year of promoting creativity and literary excellence.

Creativity is what makes us human. We create, we imagine, we tell stories. We create in order to understand the world around us. Creativity isn't necessarily a special talent, but rather an ability within us all. Over the years I’ve been a student at Bryant, one passion has always stuck with me through my courses, extracurricular activities and jobs: making sure creativity survives. I’ve always understood how important it is in everything we do.

Some students fail to see how creativity fits into their education. They don’t realize that it will make them better job candidates and happier people as well. But fortunately I have also found people who do believe in creativity’s importance. I have discovered secret wells of it everywhere, one of which is the Bryant Literary Review.

The BLR has kept my creativity alive during my time at Bryant. For two years I read the magazine and was inspired by the work of others, and for two years I have worked as an editor and have found happiness here.

I would like to thank everyone involved in the BLR, especially Professors Tom Roach & Tom Chandler, and the assistant student editors who have made this 15th anniversary edition possible. These are people dedicated and passionate in their efforts to keep creativity alive in the harsh environment of the literary world.

I hope each of you taps into the creativity within yourself, inspired perhaps by these stories and poems.

Sara Elder
BLR Student Editor